This paper describes the performance of the LABDOS01, a silicon diode-based spectrometer suitable for dose measurements in mixed radiation fields. The instrument is currently being used in two high-altitude environmental dose monitoring projects: SAMADHA (South Atlantic Magnetic Anomaly Dosimetry at High Altitude) at Chacaltaya (Bolivia, 5240 m a.s.l.) and CORDIAL (COsmic Rays Dosimetry In Antarctic Latitudes) at the Concordia station (Antarctica, 3233 m a.s.l.). Before installing two of these devices at the measurement sites, the detectors were tested on flight routes covering a wide range of geomagnetic latitudes. The collected
dosimetric data were compared with the expectations derived by the CARI-7A software, which provides the absorbed dose rate in silicon due to cosmic ray secondaries at a given position on the Earth. The measured dose rates along the flights at variable altitude and rigidity cutoff agree well with the simulated ones. By analyzing the spectrum of the energy deposited in the silicon layer, we derive an empirical method to approximately evaluate the ambient dose equivalent H∗ (10), a quantity directly related to the biological damage caused by environmental radiation.
